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Colleen Tuite's Thesis.Pdf Tuite 1 Slavery to Mass Incarceration: The Evolution of a Racial Caste System ​ Colleen Tuite Public and Community Service Studies Senior Capstone Thesis Tuite 2 “How many have we lost? How many of us have been killed by whiteness? How many dead thrown into the sea or buried on plantations, hanged or burned alive, raped or jailed? How many millions upon millions? Can those lives be redeemed? Here in America? Around us is a nation taught to see us first as semi-animals, now criminals; it's a vision produced from social conflict where the very idea of crime is a political tool the elites use to hammer the poor.” 1 I. Introduction Known as the “Land of the Free”, the United States of America has the highest incarceration rate in the world. There are approximately 2.2 million people behind bars and an additional 4.5 million under community supervision.2 With the prison population having increased 700% in a 40 year period, despite crime rates barely fluctuating, one must wonder why our country relies so heavily on incarceration.3 Black individuals, especially Black men, are disproportionately represented in the prisons and jails across America as they are five times more likely to be incarcerated than their white male counterparts.4 Our country’s correctional facilities are used as a warehouse to cage these people and prevent them from participating in society. For a lot of people, especially those who are not harmed by the system, prisons seem like an inherent aspect of society needed to keep people safe. The prison system has not been 1 Schenwar, Maya, et al. Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect?: Police Violence and Resistance in the United ​ ​ States. Haymarket Books, 2016. ​ 2 Initiative, Prison Policy. “Correctional Control 2018: Incarceration and Supervision by State.” Correctional ​ Control 2018: Incarceration and Supervision by State | Prison Policy Initiative, ​ www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/correctionalcontrol2018.html. 3 Ghandnoosh, Nazgol, and Nicole D. Porter. “U.S. Prison Population Trends: Massive Buildup and Modest ​ Decline.” The Sentencing Project, 17 Sept. 2019, ​ ​ www.sentencingproject.org/publications/u-s-prison-population-trends-massive-buildup-and-modest-decline/. ​ 4 Mauer, Marc. “Addressing Racial Disparities in Incarceration.” Https://Www.researchgate.net/Profile/Marc_Mauer/Publication/258194313_Addressing_Racial_Disparities_in_Inc arceration/Links/56b9fbed08ae39ea99073d8b/Addressing-Racial-Disparities-in-Incarceration.pdf, ​ Tuite 3 statistically proven to deter crime, reduce inmate populations, or rehabilitate people; in fact, it has been proven to do quite the opposite. So why do we continue to believe this narrative? Mass incarceration has allowed for a population of the United States to remain at the bottom of society, locked in cages and hidden away from plain sight. It is often believed that those who are incarcerated deserve their punishment, but the system was constructed with the intention of targeting certain groups of people and protecting others. Minorities are disproportionately affected and unfairly treated by the system. There needs to be a group of people disenfranchised in order for capitalism to operate and the elite class wants to keep them there. People under correctional control are silenced and stripped of their rights as a citizen and as a human being all in the name of justice. An analysis of the role that race and social class play within mass incarceration reveals there is a drastic overrepresentation of poor Black individuals stuck in the revolving door that is our criminal justice system. One in three Black men will be incarcerated in their lifetime and that chance is even greater for a low-income Black man.5 Mass incarceration has become a destructive force to communities of color, while simultaneously benefiting wealthy white Americans. The prison system is a billion dollar industry that profits from locking people in cages, tearing them away from their families and exploiting them for their labor. As an economic system profiting from the inhumane treatment of Black individuals, mass incarceration is an evolution of a racial caste system that began with slavery. This paper aims to elucidate the connections between slavery and mass incarceration, while highlighing the implications it has had for the Black community. This paper will provide background on the history of mass 5 “Criminal Justice Fact Sheet.” NAACP, www.naacp.org/criminal-justice-fact-sheet/. ​ ​ ​ Tuite 4 incarceration, analyze racial discrimination and violence within the criminal justice system, and show the economic value that the prison system has had for the elite class in America. Finally, this paper will make a case for the abolition of prisons. II. Historical Background: Police and Prisons Police forces and prisons are often thought to be inevitable parts of our world, necessary for safety and order. Our society idolizes police officers as heroes protecting the community, but that is not what police forces were ever created to do. Policing began in the 17th century and white men could sign up to be a watchman at night, looking for prosititution or gambling. Night watchers were generally unliked and it was an unpopular position. When cities expanded due to urbanization, both the North and South expanded the police system to protect their growing economies. Police began informally in the South as a way to track down runaway slaves and prevent slave revolts. In 1704, the first official “slave patrol” was established in the Carolina colonies. After the war and during Reconstruction, almost all of the police forces acted primarily the same as slave patrols, maintaining segregation and depriving freed slaves of any rights.6 Towards the late 19th century, police forces became more popular in cities as wealthy businessmen had connections to politicians. Businessmen wanted to prevent unions from forming and encouraged the police to “maintain law and order” so that no one would disrupt their workplace. As immigrants from multiple European countries started arriving in the U.S., the police were then used to disenfranchise them as well. Politicians and police worked in tandem to push each other’s agendas. Politicians often used police to intimidate voters and would 6 Kappeler, Victor. “A Brief History of Slavery and the Origins of American Policing.” A Brief History of Slavery ​ and the Origins of American Policing | Police Studies Online, ​ plsonline.eku.edu/insidelook/brief-history-slavery-and-origins-american-policing. Tuite 5 pay police to allow them to gamble and drink. It was not until 1929 that President Hoover intervened and appointed the Wickersham Commission to investigate corruption between police officers and politicians.7 In today’s world, a lot of people view the police as necessary for the protection of our society, however, they were never intended to promote safety. The police have often played a role in assisting those who are powerful, while masking their actions in a false narrative of protecting the common good. The prison system in America was also not created for the well-being of society, as it has its historical roots in slavery. Following the end of The Civil War and the so-called emancipation of slaves, the South needed to revive their economy. The war had destroyed a lot of the South’s infrastructure, and they needed a cheap way to rebuild. Kim Gilmore writes, “The end of enslavement posed an existential crisis for white supremacy, because an open labor market means blacks competing with whites for jobs and resources… Postbellum Alabama solved this problem by manufacturing criminals.” 8 Utilizing a loophole in the 13th Amendment that states, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction”, an era of convict labor was born.9 Free labor was legal if the labor came from convicts. With a subjective view of crime and punishment, a new form of legalized slavery had begun. The white majority barred Black people from entering the political sphere and increased the ramifications of certain crimes named the “Black Codes”. These were a series of laws passed 7 Potter, Gary. “The History of Policing in the United States, Part 1.” The History Of Policing In The United States, ​ ​ Part 1 | Police Studies Online | Eastern Kentucky University, ​ plsonline.eku.edu/insidelook/history-policing-united-states-part-1. 8 Gilmore, Kim. “Slavery and Prison -- Understanding the Connections.” Social Justice, Crime and Social Justice ​ ​ Associates, 22 Sept. 2000, www.questia.com/library/journal/1G1-73040938/slavery-and-prison-understanding-the-connections. 9 U. S. Const. amend. XIII. ​ Tuite 6 the same year as the 13th Amendment that targeted Black people. At the time, it was close to impossible for Black men to find work, but in Mississippi, being unemployed was a crime.10 The Black Codes worked to keep racial minorities, especially Black people, at the mercy of the white elite. After the Civil Rights movement and the abolishment of Jim Crow laws, a new system was needed to keep the social hierarchy intact. It was no longer legal to be explicit about racial segregation so elites needed to use coded language and policies. Mass incarceration began in the 1970s, during a political era where politicians pledged to be tougher on crime, resulting in the “War on Drugs”. From 1973-2009, the prison population went from 200,000 to 1.5 million.11 The prison population exploded because of a series of crime related policies and propaganda. The war on drugs came at a time when only 2% of the American population named drugs to be their main concern for the country.12 Reagan drastically expanded the budgets of the FBI and DEA, as the FBI anti-drug department funding increased from $8 million to $95 million in four years and DEA anti-drug funding increased from $86 million to $1billion in a period of ten years.
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